America Channel Inks Comcast Agreement
Programmer Plans 2008 Digital Launch Of Six Regional Sports Nets In 26 Markets
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 11/6/2007 3:26:00 AM EST
There’s a new player in the regional sports network business.
America Channel has signed an affiliation agreement with Comcast Corp. for digital carriage of its new channel in 26 of the nation’s largest cable operator’s markets. America Channel will tip off its launch plan in early 2008.
Beginning next year, America Channel will deliver sports events from 19 NCAA Division I conferences representing 172 universities, including hundreds of basketball and football games, as well as extensive additional sports and conference tournaments, according to the network’s press release.
It was unclear, though, what kind of digital distribution America Channel's seven planned regional sports networks have secured with Comcast and under what terms, whether they will be offered on a sports tier, or if the positioning varies by market.
For their part, Comcast officials confirmed that an affiliate accord has been struck with America Channel, but declined to discuss deal terms or channel positioning. America Channel CEO Doron Gorshein could not be reached by press time
However in a filing with the FCC Feb. 27, America Channel indicated that it was seeking carriage sans license fee over a three-year span: “In exchange for carriage, [America Channel] is offering its programming to Comcast without a per-subscriber fee for an initial period of three years, after which the parties would negotiate the terms of carriage. [America Channel] anticipates that, if Comcast reciprocally commits to provide carriage on its cable systems, the quality of [America Channel’s] programming will enable it to attract viewers and significant advertising revenues.”
As mentioned above, it could not be determined if the distribution deal was forged under the basic parameters adumbrated in the FCC filing. In previous conversations, Gorshein indicated that America Channel was pursuing carriage deals in which distributors would share in advertising revenue generated by the service. The network had previously inked a pact with overbuilder RCN.
America Channel’s affiliate entry presumably stemmed from a late September ruling by the Federal Communications Commission in which the agency ruled that the programmer qualified to enter arbitration to secure distribution from Comcast. America Channel gained leverage in June 2006 when the FCC said that regional sports networks were entitled to seek arbitration to obtain carriage from Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
At the time of the ruling, America Channel was not a sports service. It became one not long after the FCC ruling, which came in connection with Comcast and Time Warner’s $17.6 billion joint acquisition of bankrupt Adelphia Communications. Comcast asked the FCC to reject America Channel’s corporate makeover as an opportunistic move to game the Adelphia merger condition regarding compulsory arbitration for unaffiliated regional sports networks.
The FCC in September, though, determined that America Channel qualified as a sports network because it then had programming deals with 14 NCAA Division I college-sports conferences to air 500 games of football, basketball, soccer and volleyball. It also met the definition of regional, the FCC said, because the network committed to offer separate broadcasts in six geographic regions that include 20 individual TV markets.
The FCC has since suspended the compulsory arbitration condition for regional sports network, making America Channel's entry a de facto one-off situation.
Via planned regional services AC New England, AC Northeast, AC Mid-Atlantic, AC Midwest, AC Mountain, AC South and AC West, the programmer said it will reach Comcast digital customers in Chicago; Detroit; Indianapolis; Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville, Fla.; Nashville and Chattanooga, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark.; Columbia, Md.; Savannah, Ga.; Monroe, La.; Baltimore; Washington, DC; Roanoke/Lynchburg Va.; Philadelphia and Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Penn.; New York; Boston; Hartford/New Haven, Conn.; Providence, R.I.; Burlington, Vt.; San Francisco and Sacramento, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City; and Denver.
In announcing its agreement with RCN in April, the provider said it would carry AC New England, AC Northeast and AC Mid-Atlantic.
